Navvy Bank needs some loving care
RECENTLY a facebook friend, is there a difference between friends and facebook friends, extolled the virtues of the Omeath Greenway.
She had just enjoyed a frosty walk along the Omeath Greenway and was full of praise for the amenity and the beauty of Carlingford Lough.
To my shame, I have yet to experience the pleasure of this amenity right on our doorstep, but I am determined to add it to my ‘ to do’ list and the summer will not set without me experiencing it either by foot or under pedal power.
In the meantime, I ventured back onto one of my favourite walks last week and was disappointed at its sorry sight.
The Navvy Bank is a wonderful short walk in town, right down the Soldiers’ Point where it opens up to Dundalk Bay with views across the river to Bellurgan Point and the Cooley mountains beyond.
Walking along the route is always better at high tide rather than low tide as the odours from the sewerage treatment plant outflow pipe can be off-putting to say the least.
However beautiful the activity of the wild bird life along the river banks, the still waters, the moored fishing boats and the friendliness of fellow walkers along the bank, there was no mistaking the tiredness of the surrounds.
Nothing looks pretty and vibrant on a cold frosty morning, with a scruffy winter coats, but clearly the Navvy bank is in dire need of some tender loving care.
The place looks tired and worn out, the information boards along the riverbank with information on the bird life are faded, cracked and illegible.
Some of the poor impressions are left by vandalism and misuse. The dog fouling bins are broken and some of the information boards at Soldier’s Point are covered in graffiti. However there is nothing to read inside the frames of these same information boards, wheth- er they have been deliberately removed or not is impossible to tell.
The telescope at Soldier’s Point is broken. It was broken the previous time I walked along the bank some months previously.
Yet for all the tiredness and unkempt nature of the Navvy Bank, it is one of the most loved walking routes in town, used by hundreds and hundreds of people young and old every week.
The new monument to the victims of the sinking of the SS Dundalk which was unveiled last year, is a notable addition along the walk.
Surely for such a popular beauty spot in town it should be much more cared for and looked after.
Very little has changed along the route in generations.
Walking and greenways have become very, very popular. There is no where safer and more beautiful to walk along that the Navvy Bank on a cold winter’s day or a warm summer’s evening.
We all know public money is scare and there are many, many competing demands and even more deserving places to spend such funds, but surely it is not beyond us all, Council, councillors, state agencies and community members to devise a programme to improve the amenities along the walk over a period of time, rather than just let it be as is.